Financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald may have lost the most employees in the September 11 attacks a decade ago, but it may also be the biggest comeback story. Howard Lutnick, chairman and chief executive, recounts his company's unique tale of tragedy and renewal to CNBC.

After ten years, memorials are still being built around the country on top of the 700 already in place. Each of them marks a unique healing path for the victim's family, the community and the whole nation.

A decade later, the financial shock can be seen as one of a half-dozen financial dominoes to befall the U.S. economy in a long boom-and-bust period, but with one key difference — the wound was not self inflicted.

"I'm skeptical of anyone who can answer the question 'Are we safer?' with a simple yes or no," says Ward Thomas, a national security expert. "We are better in some ways, but not necessarily in others."

"Post-9/11 surveillance measures have made it far too easy for the government to review our personal and business records, telephone and e-mail conversations, and virtually all aspects of our lives," the author and President of the ACLU explains in this guest blog why the Fourth Amendment is good for business and essential for democracy.

Ten years after the attacks on September 11, we still don’t live in a world where we are free from terror threats. But we have made great progress on how to best communicate those threats in a way that makes us all a little bit safer.